


Midnight Visit

by Lovedinsecret



Series: Come As You Are [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Aged Up, Billy is a good brother, M/M, Pregnancy Scares, Steve is such a mom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:21:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24023521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lovedinsecret/pseuds/Lovedinsecret
Summary: Steve has learned that a knock at the door at this hour can never be good news. Max turns up in the middle of the night, scared and looking for the comfort of her brother and Steve.
Relationships: Billy Hargrove/Steve Harrington, Maxine "Max" Mayfield/Lucas Sinclair
Series: Come As You Are [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1732933
Comments: 7
Kudos: 141





	Midnight Visit

**Author's Note:**

> considering the reaction to a few people reading Strawberry was "MAX'S PREGNANCY SCARE?!!!!!" and my own desire to see Billy go all big brother, I decided to expand the Strawberry universe to include this. I'm having issues with Forget Me Not and this universe seems to be a soft place to play in for now. So more will probably come later as I find little bits I want to explore. You can always swing by my tumblr and let me know if you want me to write about anything, or like...scream about Harringrove, I am always up for that. I'm Lovedinsecret there too.

It’s nearing midnight when there’s a knock on the door, loud and insistent. It rouses Steve from his sleep before it does Billy, but only because Steve was barely on the cusp of sleep anyway. He sits up, blinking at the red glow of the alarm clock, willing his brain to function enough to take in the numbers when the knock comes again and Billy groans next to him.

“What the hell.” He growls in a sleepy rasp. He’s been on opening shifts for the past month at the garage so when his sleep is interrupted, he’s a beast to deal with. “I swear if it’s Robin drunk again, whining about that girl, I’m going to scream, Stevie.”

“Robin knows better than to drink and drive,” is all Steve says as he slips out of bed. “Stay here and I’ll see who it is.”

He knows, even as he pads to the door, that he won’t be going back to sleep for a while. It’s too late at night for it to be anything other than something important that can’t wait. He can only hope that this time it’s something easy. A spat between El and Mike is the most likely culprit. It happens on a biannual basis and can be dealt with by a simple plying of ice cream and the comforting arms of one Billy Hargrove. They can put her in the guest room after an hour and get back to bed. Anything other than that could mean an issue in which he will have to call in sick at work tomorrow, which he hates doing. He loves seeing his kids every day, and he doesn’t trust the substitute teacher Mrs. Bloomfield to be kind to them.

His stomach drops when he sees a shock of red hair when he opens the door. Max is usually the last one he has to worry about, she keeps the boys in line with an iron fist and if her and Lucas have a spat she’s usually the one who ended it and rarely needs comforting from it. But here she stands in his doorway, in ripped jeans and a shirt he’s pretty sure she stole from Billy, a faded Slayer shirt with a hole near the collar. She’s got a plastic bag from Eckerds clutched in her fist and tears in her eyes.

“Max? What’s wrong?”

“I didn’t know where else to go.” She says and her voice is all wobbly and thick with tears. “Is Billy up?”

“Yeah, I can get him. Come in.” Steve steps back to let her through and puts a hand between her shoulder blades to steer her to the couch. Once she gets there she flops down and hunches over, dropping her head in her hands and the bag to the floor.

He leans in the doorway to their room, just able to make out Billy sitting up in bed. “Babe, it’s Max. You better come out here.”

“Alright, let me get some pants on.”

Steve is sitting next to Max with a comforting hand rubbing her back by the time Billy stumbles out of their room, bleary eyed and curls askew.

“What’s with the late night visit, shitbird?” He asks, voice still gravely as he tugs a shirt on over the scars that cover his torso. They are pale things now after so many years, near pearlescent against his tan skin where they spiderweb out in starburst patterns. A reminder of the monster he fought. He’d probably hate them if it wasn’t for Steve.

Max sniffs and then stands, straightening her spine and glaring at him. “You can’t yell.”

“You come into my house in the middle of the night and think you call the shots now?” He cocks an eyebrow. “Cute. Cut the shit, some of us have to work for a living. What’s going on Max.” It’s then that he notices she’s shaking, no matter the brave front she’s giving him. They’ve come so far in five years, now resembling the brother and sister duo that they’d always fought against when they were younger. “Hey, come here.”

She does, wrapping her arms around him as he tucks her under his chin and rubs her back. The floodgates open again, and he holds her through it while she sobs into his chest. “We were stupid, so stupid. I didn’t—I didn’t think…”

“Shh, it’s gunna be alright, Max. Just tell me what happened.” He soothes while Steve bends down and pilfers through a bag of something on the floor.

“Oh, fuck.” Steve says, and it’s a quiet thing.

“You can’t get mad!” She says, suddenly fighting his grip and trying to turn back to Steve. And normally by now, even with all the therapy, Billy would be losing his patience. He’s fucking exhausted and she’s being cagey as hell, but there’s something about the tremble in her lower lip that gives him pause, something about the wide eyes and flushed expression Steve is giving him now. He holds his hands up in surrender, leans back on the little half wall that juts out as a separation between the living room and the dining room.

“I won’t get mad.” He finally says, evenly.

“I think I might be…pregnant.” She finally admits.

“WHAT?” It feels like the air has been punched out of him, like he’s been hurled up from the Upside Down. He blinks, trying to clear the strange high pitched buzzing that has started somewhere between his ears.

“You said you wouldn’t yell!” She snaps.

“I said I wouldn’t get mad.” He clarifies with a growl. “What the hell do you mean you _might_ be pregnant? Where is that little shit stain?”

“Leave Lucas out of it.” She glares daggers at him as if it could pin him in place.

“Oh, I don’t fucking think so, he seems to be very much inv—”

“Max.” Steve calls, interrupting the start of what would have been an unnecessary tirade, sounding every bit as tired as he feels, pinching at the top of his nose and dangling the bag on the fingers of his freehand. “Maybe you should find out first. While I get your brother calmed down. Use our bathroom, and when you know, we can figure out a plan.”

Max huffs, fisting her hands at her sides and then stomps over to Steve, grabbing the bag from him before stomping out of the room while Billy just glares at a spot in the carpet, teeth clenched, and heart hammering in his chest.

“Come here, Tiger.” Steve says, patting the spot next to him on the couch.

It takes Billy a moment or two to make his muscles obey, but when they finally do, he notices the smile curling at Steve’s lips.

“What are you smiling for?” He asks incredulously as he sinks down next to him on the leather couch Mrs. Harrington bought for them. It had been a peace offering a year ago, but Billy knew that the only reason she bought it was that she couldn’t stand the thought of her son sitting on a second hand sofa from Thrift Mart. The leather is cool on his lower back where his shirt rides up.

“Maybe it doesn’t have to be a bad thing, is all. I mean think about it, a baby.” Steve says, and he’s got that look in his eyes. The same one he got when Billy found that scrawny black kitten nearly half frozen in the backyard at the Harrington house during his first year of recovery. Pretty now lives with El because their new apartment doesn’t allow pets. But this isn’t some stray cat, it’s a human baby.

“I _am_ thinking about it.” Billy insists. “And I don’t see anything remotely smile worthy at the thought of my sister being a teen mom because Lucas fucking Sinclair doesn’t know how to wrap it up.”

“Billy, don’t catastrophise it. She’s already scared enough. It could be good, you know.”

“I’m going to fucking kill Sinclair.” Billy snarls.

“You will not.” Steve snips. “No matter what she finds out in there, you will not do a thing to Lucas.”

They sit in silence for a few moments and the longer that they are quiet the more aware Billy becomes of the dreamy look in Steve’s eyes. Billy can see the whole idea blooming in Steve’s mind before he even gives voice to it. The idea isn’t new, Billy knows how much Steve wants kids. He smothers the teens in affection and he’s the best damn kindergarten teacher Hawkins has ever seen, Billy has no doubt about that. It’s one of the only things that sucks about their relationship. Billy will never be able to give him what he wants. He can’t make Steve a father, though if it were possible, he’d do it in a heartbeat. If Max is pregnant, it will take an army to keep Steve away. And yeah, it’s that reason that keeps Billy from full on exploding at this situation, but still. It’s _Max._

“Babe, what if…” Steve starts, unable to even finish the statement. The look in his eyes hurts Billy a bit, even if he knows it’s not his fault. He can’t do this right now, can’t discuss what they can’t _have._

“That’s not the point, Steve.” He says, and it comes out harsher than he intends it to. “The point is that little shit stain knocked up my baby sister!” Billy snaps, anxious and feeling inadequate.

“Shut up, Billy! It’s not like you weren’t fucking Steve when you were my age.” Max has rallied. Her eyes are still puffy and the tip of her nose is red and her cheeks splotchy but that fire is all there as she cocks her hip and crosses her arms while glaring at Billy.

“Oh fuck you Maxine.” Billy stands up despite Steve’s flailing arm trying to catch him and drag him back down. Steve just sighs and slumps back into the couch. “What Steve and I do in the privacy of our own house—”

“It was my parent’s house when we were her age.” Steve interjects and he is tired. So tired.

“—is not up for discussion. How in the hell did this happen?”

“Well you see, William, when a man loves a woman—”

“Will you both shut the fuck up!” Steve finally shouts.

The silence that follows is near deafening. Steve rarely raises his voice, and it’s an even rarer occurrence that he tells Billy to shut up.

“Billy, sit down.” And Steve’s tone brokers no argument. “Max, what did the test say?”

Max scuffs her toe on the carpet. “I, uh, don’t really know.”

“You don’t _know?”_ Billy asks incredulously. “Maybe you shouldn’t be _fucking Sinclair if you can’t remember condoms or know how to read a pregnancy test!_ ” He snarls.

“I said shut up.” Steve growls, glaring at Billy. “This isn’t ideal and you _aren’t helping._ Max bring it here.”

When she does, he thinks he knows why she has no idea what it means, he doesn’t even really know what it means. It’s not like it’s a clear digital YES or NO like on an alarm clock. In fact, it looks closer to a chemistry experiment than it does anything else. There’s a tube with liquid in it and he tries not to think too hard about what’s in it. But after reading the crumpled sheet of instructions, he knows that the liquid has to be blue in order for Max to be pregnant.

“And you put in three drops, right?” He asks, still scanning the instructions.

“Yeah.”

“And it’s been ten minutes?”

“Uh, I think?”

Steve sighs. “Let’s give it five more minutes just to be sure.”

And that’s when it happens. When it becomes clear to anyone paying attention why Max came here. She very well could have taken this at home, Susan and Max are close, closer now that Neil is gone. Se could have gone to El. Steve suspects that if Billy wasn’t an option, she very well might have. But Billy is an option, and for all of his yelling and all of the tension, Billy reaches out for Max’s hand, draws her close and wraps his arms around her. Max seems to settle against him, truly settle, for the first time since she arrived.

“Whatever it is Max, we’ve got you.” He whispers into her hair, so quiet that Steve almost doesn’t hear him, but does.

“He’s right.” He says, setting the test down on the coffee table.

“I know.” She nods and leans into Billy’s shoulder.

“If Susan gives you shit, we’ve got a guest room, and you know we both love having you here. It’s not… You won’t end up like my mom, Maxie. You’d have a safe and loving place for you and the baby, no strings.” Billy explains, saying more than Steve ever expected him to. Because he so rarely talks about his mom, those thoughts are too painful, what she did to him, what she had to do. But what he says is true. Billy’s mom was young when she got pregnant with Billy, not as young as Max, but still, far too young to handle what she was forced to handle at that age. Young enough to believe that a baby would calm Neil down, settle his rage, stop the gaslighting and the abuse. Neil cut her off from any support system she could have gained in those days when she needed it most, and then got worse. It’s why she ran, and why she didn’t take Billy with her when she did. It’s taken a lot for him to finally understand that, to not blame her for it. It still hurts. He still has no idea where she is, or even if she’s alive. He still has nights were, after Mrs. Henderson has done something truly motherly, he gets tangled in a dark web of thoughts about not being good enough for her. But he no longer gets caught up in what might have been, if his mother had taken him. If she had he wouldn’t have Steve. And Steve is what matters most to Billy.

Max pulls back, knowing just what he offered and why, and smiles for the first time since Steve opened the door. “Oh, you mean aside from Mr. Mom taking over?” She shares a conspiratorial grin with Billy and he cracks up as Steve just huffs.

They settle in for the last few minutes, Max curled up against her brother, while Steve stares at the unchanging test. After it’s been at least five minutes and the test doesn’t show even the tiniest tinge of blue, Steve calls it. “Okay, Max. It looks like it’s negative.”

“Oh thank god.” She slumps further into Billy.

“I wouldn’t be thanking any deities yet, Red.” Steve says, eyebrows raised as he looks at her, now unmoved.

“Yeah, your little mistake has made it abundantly clear that all you little shits are missing a very important step in your education. So when they all start grumbling about how embarrassed they are, whining and begging us to shut up, just know who’s fault it is.” Billy says, immediately knowing where Steve’s mind is. Knows he’s right by the way Steve grins like the devil. Max groans in his arms.

“You wouldn’t.”

“Oh, believe me shitbird, we absolutely will.”

“There will be goodie bags too.” Steve adds.

“Fucking gross!”


End file.
